full transcript

From the Ted Talk by Ivan Krastev: Can democracy exist without trust?

Unscramble the Blue Letters


This is the opening of a beautiful novel by Jose Saramago called "Seeing." But in my view it very well cpatuers part of the problem that we have with democracy in Europe these days. On one level nobody's questioning that democracy is the best form of government. Democracy is the only game in town. The problem is that many people start to believe that it is not a game worth playing.

For the last 30 years, political scientists have observed that there is a constnat dlneice in electoral turnout, and the people who are least interested to vote are the plopee whom you expect are going to gain most out of voting. I mean the unemployed, the under-privileged. And this is a major issue. Because especially now with the emcionoc crisis, you can see that the trust in politics, that the trust in democratic inttstniouis, was really destroyed. According to the latest servuy being done by the eaeuropn coisomsimn, 89 percent of the citizens of euproe believe that there is a growing gap between the opinion of the policy-makers and the opinion of the public. Only 18 percent of Italians and 15 percent of Greeks believe that their vote mrtetas. Basically people start to understand that they can change governments, but they cannot change policies.

Open Cloze


This is the opening of a beautiful novel by Jose Saramago called "Seeing." But in my view it very well ________ part of the problem that we have with democracy in Europe these days. On one level nobody's questioning that democracy is the best form of government. Democracy is the only game in town. The problem is that many people start to believe that it is not a game worth playing.

For the last 30 years, political scientists have observed that there is a ________ _______ in electoral turnout, and the people who are least interested to vote are the ______ whom you expect are going to gain most out of voting. I mean the unemployed, the under-privileged. And this is a major issue. Because especially now with the ________ crisis, you can see that the trust in politics, that the trust in democratic ____________, was really destroyed. According to the latest ______ being done by the ________ __________, 89 percent of the citizens of ______ believe that there is a growing gap between the opinion of the policy-makers and the opinion of the public. Only 18 percent of Italians and 15 percent of Greeks believe that their vote _______. Basically people start to understand that they can change governments, but they cannot change policies.

Solution


  1. commission
  2. people
  3. matters
  4. constant
  5. captures
  6. europe
  7. survey
  8. economic
  9. institutions
  10. decline
  11. european

Original Text


This is the opening of a beautiful novel by Jose Saramago called "Seeing." But in my view it very well captures part of the problem that we have with democracy in Europe these days. On one level nobody's questioning that democracy is the best form of government. Democracy is the only game in town. The problem is that many people start to believe that it is not a game worth playing.

For the last 30 years, political scientists have observed that there is a constant decline in electoral turnout, and the people who are least interested to vote are the people whom you expect are going to gain most out of voting. I mean the unemployed, the under-privileged. And this is a major issue. Because especially now with the economic crisis, you can see that the trust in politics, that the trust in democratic institutions, was really destroyed. According to the latest survey being done by the European Commission, 89 percent of the citizens of Europe believe that there is a growing gap between the opinion of the policy-makers and the opinion of the public. Only 18 percent of Italians and 15 percent of Greeks believe that their vote matters. Basically people start to understand that they can change governments, but they cannot change policies.

Frequently Occurring Word Combinations


ngrams of length 2

collocation frequency
market revolution 3
democratic institutions 2
small country 2
people start 2
cold war 2
political community 2
elites basically 2
digital world 2
big brother 2
brother watching 2

ngrams of length 3

collocation frequency
big brother watching 2

Important Words


  1. basically
  2. beautiful
  3. called
  4. captures
  5. change
  6. citizens
  7. commission
  8. constant
  9. crisis
  10. days
  11. decline
  12. democracy
  13. democratic
  14. destroyed
  15. economic
  16. electoral
  17. europe
  18. european
  19. expect
  20. form
  21. gain
  22. game
  23. gap
  24. government
  25. governments
  26. greeks
  27. growing
  28. institutions
  29. interested
  30. issue
  31. italians
  32. jose
  33. latest
  34. level
  35. major
  36. matters
  37. observed
  38. opening
  39. opinion
  40. part
  41. people
  42. percent
  43. playing
  44. policies
  45. political
  46. politics
  47. problem
  48. public
  49. questioning
  50. saramago
  51. scientists
  52. start
  53. survey
  54. town
  55. trust
  56. turnout
  57. understand
  58. unemployed
  59. view
  60. vote
  61. voting
  62. worth
  63. years